Books I read in 2005

 

 

Escape from Freedom by Eric Fromm (Psychology)

 

This insightful social psychology book in Fromm’s words, “is an analysis of the phenomenon of man’s anxiety engendered by the breakdown of the Medieval world..” The author speculates insightfully about the origins of the individual and his self-awareness as such, and he analyses historical trends in which individuals tend to give up their freedom. Also, other interesting psychological analysis about religion, historical characters and philosophy are found in this book. I thought the book was very interesting, but nearing the end I lost interest. The level of difficulty is easy to medium.

The Fall by Albert Camus (Fiction)

This book seems like listening to someone talking on the phone. You only hear one side of a conversation that lasts few days. The Fall is not as engaging as his first book, The Stranger, which makes it a more difficult book. Some of the main topics include guilt and justice.

Quotes:

"Your successes and happiness are forgiven you only if you generously consent to share them. But to be happy it is essential not to be concerned with others. Consequently there is no escape. Happy and judged, or absolved and wretched. As for me, the injustice was even greater: I was condemned for past successes."

"I occasionally pretended to take life seriously. But very soon the frivolity of seriousness struck me and I merely went on playing my role as well as I could."

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Fiction)

 

Captain Walton while sailing by the arctic, meets Dr. Frankenstein, a scientist who was glad to be rescued by someone who was chasing him on a sled. Dr. Frankenstein tells the story of how he brought to life human being with his scientific knowledge. The new being is rejected first by his maker and then by a family he helped. The being starts murdering people in revenge. I won’t tell the end.

 

 

Games People Play by Eric Berne (Psychology)

 

Berne, a psychoanalyst, analyses interpersonal communication, and explains that interpersonal communication is often not genuine because we fall into “Games.” By games he means that we let either our parent or our child part of our ego take control of the social encounter. He elaborates on the different kinds of games that we can take part of. I found fascinating when I was aware of myself playing these games after I read this book.

The Gospel by Luke (Biography)

First time I read a Gospel in its entirety. I recommend it. Luke narrates the life of Jesus from a historical point of view. Jesus announces the way to salvation by following him, and also denounces specific behaviors found in the Pharisees and some of the Priests.

Quotes:

"Turning to his disciples in private he said, blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it."

"There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said to him, what is written in the law? How do you read it? He said in reply, You shall love the lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself? Jesus replied to him, you have answered correctly; do this and you will live?

 

Irrational Man by William Barret (Philosophy)

 

This is the best introduction to Existentialism I’ve read. Barret examines the roots of Existentialism in Western Civilization and clearly explains the philosophy of Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Heidegger and Sartre.

 

Lila by Robert M. Pirsig (Philosophy)

This is Pirsig’s second book, which expands on his “Metaphysics of Quality” started on Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. He makes several interesting points and attempts to systematize his philosophy. Whether this attempt was successful or not, I leave it up to you. The book makes you think quite a lot, and like in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenace, there is a narrative paralleling the presentation of his philosophy. In Lila however, the narrative is horrible and the use of language has “low quality.”

Quote:

"When you define morality scientifically as that which enhances evolution it sounds as though you have really solved the problem of what morality is. But then when you try to say specifically what is and what isn’t evolution and where evolution is going, you find you are right back in the soup again."

 

Living Issues in Philosophy by Titus, Smith and Nolan (Philosophy)

 

This introductory textbook of philosophy does a good job in covering and explaining the philosophical branches. It includes recommendations for further reading, and excerpts from different philosophers. I wish some chapters (like Analytic philosophy) would cover the themes more thoroughly though.  

 

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Fiction)

 

This novel relates the intricate lives of multiple generations living in a Colombian town. One cannot miss a page because something always happens. The novel is full of action, fantastic events based on historical happenings, and the author uses amazing prose –I enjoyed it very much.

 

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (Fiction)

This book contains some of the most beautiful writing I have read. It is also one of the most difficult books I have read. Joyce’s work is supposed to be pseudo-autobiographical. He tells the story of Stephen Dedalus –a boy growing up Catholic in Ireland around the 1900s. Some of the themes are religion and fear, beauty, and individualism.

Quotes:

"The veiled windless hour had passed and behind the panes of the naked window the morning light was gathering. A bell beat faintly very far away. A bird twittered, two birds, three. The bell and the bird ceased: and the dull white light spread itself east and west, covering the world, covering the roselight in his heart."

"A soft liquid joy like the noise of many waters flowed over his memory and he felt in his heart the soft peace of silent spaces of fading tenuous sky above the waters, of oceanic silence, of swallows flying through the seadusk over the flowing waters."

 

The Quantum Society by Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall (Pseudo-Science)

 

This pseudo-scientific book informs about very cool scientific theories regarding quantum mechanics, and uses these theories to approach problems such as the mind-body problem, and suggests a political model based on these ideas.

 

The Words by Jean-Paul Sartre (Autobiographical)

Sartre takes a look at himself as a writer and identifies that before anything else he considers himself as a writer. The book is autobiographical and deals specifically with Sartre’s childhood. With a tone of impotence to achieve greatness, Sartre implies that he wrote novels in order to achieve through fiction what he wanted to achieve in his life.

Quotes:

"In my rare moments of lavishness, my mother would whisper to me: "Be careful! We’re not in our own home." We were never in our home, neither in the Rue Le Goff nor later when my mother remarried. This caused me no suffering since everything was loaned to me, but I remained abstract. Worldly possessions reflect to their owner what he is; they taught me what I was not. I was not substantial or permanent, I was not the future continuer of my father’s work, I was not necessary to the production of steel. In short, I had no soul."